With 3D printing continually gaining ground, some hackers might not see the need for traditional injection molding. After all, you can tweak the code or the model and print dozens of different iterations with fairly minimal lead time. Things get trickier when you need to print hundreds or thousands of the same thing and that ten-hour print time adds up quickly. [Actionbox] built a tiny injection molder they dubbed INJEKTO to speed up their manufacturing.
The design was optimized to be accessible as it is held together with brackets and cheap aluminum flat stock. The hardest part to source is the heating chamber, as it is a piece of turned aluminum. A PID controller keeps the temperature relatively stable and heats the plastic pellets you can dump in the top. Next, you’ll need an external air compressor to power the dual 2″ pneumatic pistons. The pistons push the plastic out of the spring-loaded extruder nozzle. [Actionbox] is already planning on a second version with 4″ pistons that provide significantly more force to extrude larger amounts of plastic as the current version tops out at about 27 grams.
Injection molding still needs a heavy-duty mold to inject into, which can be hard to machine. So until we can 3D print an injection mold, this multi-head 3D printer is something in between a 3D printer and an injection molder, as it can print a dozen of the same thing, speeding up that print time.
